After The Snap

You will never hear Suffering knock on the door to ask permission to enter your life. Trouble comes out of nowhere and leaves you to figure out how to live with it.
It was a beautiful August afternoon in Colorado. I had just caught the football. Suddenly, tragically, I came down hard in a hole and my leg twisted. I heard a “snap” and intense pain shot up my leg. The doctor in the emergency ward exclaimed “Don’t move, it is very serious”. My heart sunk. The bone in my leg was shattered in four places. A titanium rod and eight screws created immense pain. Sitting in a wheel chair in agony now replaced my life-source running routine.
So many things in life can cause us to “snap” and, one way or another, change us forever. Many are destroyed. What about you? How will you choose to respond after “the snap”?
As I sat in my wheel chair, I chose to reject the virus called, “Why me?”- “Why did this happen TO ME…” Instead, I read the New Testament. My entire view of life has been sculpted from talking to the living Jesus. So I let His beautiful words replace my selfish thoughts. If you want to find hope and answers, do the same thing.
No matter how long you think about the past, you can’t change it. So why let the past steal your future? Tragic things happen because we live in an evil world that belongs to the devil. God says all men are not “basically good” but born wicked. We do things we do not understand (1Jn.5:19/Rm.3:10). Sin is a gigantic issue we must deal with but there is an answer (read Rm.7:14ff). New life is fashioned through suffering, strength is born out of humility and power comes out of weakness (2Cor.12:9/Rm.5:3).
As I travel to various countries helping prisoners, homeless, handicapped and those that suffer, I have seen horrible injustice and sadness. Yet, even in the worst of situations, each individual still has a choice.
You surely did not choose your suffering but you do choose the attitude which will determine your future. Self-pity, depression and regret are the default response of multitudes who have heard “the snap”. Others hide their pain behind a mask of pride and self-reliance while, on the inside, they are shattered. Many become bitter and blame God for what happened. Others look for help in a “church”, religion or drugs. But there is another option. My dear friend, don’t be like the majority. Let your “broken bone” break your ego and begin to seek the Living Jesus.
God “opposes the proud” but shows favor to the lowly (1Pet.5:5/Is.57:15/1Cor.1:27). If you let your suffering humble you, so as to actually come to know God, He will redeem your past. Suffering will be to your advantage because all that matters, my friend, is eternal life (Jn.6:40/Rm.8:28).
Jesus suffered more than anyone (Is.53). He was not a modern fat-cat preacher trying to get people to come to a “church” for an hour on Sunday. He yearns to heal you, if you would come to Him (Mat.11:28). Ask Jesus to be “born from above” (Jn.3:3). Pursue silence. Cherish solitude. Study the Scriptures. Unless a seed dies, it cannot blossom (Jn.12:24).
Many voices told me that my accident would ruin my life. I did not listen. I got my eyes off myself and onto the revelation of Jesus Christ. Today I dance Irish step-dance on the streets and in prisons across the world to bring others the same hope that I found in Jesus. Return to life in your Father’s arms (Lk.15). The “bones which were broken” will rejoice and you will be far beyond who you were before the “snap” (Ps.51:8,17). | I care about you, write me at: ifanyoneisthirsty@gmail.com